


Echo

by Gallagher



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Eventual Pacifist Route, Male Bodied Frisk, Neutral Route, Nonbinary Frisk, Other, but don't hold your breath or you'll die and miss it, more tags to come as we get into it, slowest of slow burns, they fuck eventually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-27
Updated: 2018-08-27
Packaged: 2019-07-02 16:23:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15800232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gallagher/pseuds/Gallagher
Summary: It's easy to recount the things that make a good person. It's harder to put them into practice.-----------one time i got ice cream and dropped it and that's how this story feels, enjoy





	Echo

**Author's Note:**

> hi, i'm galla, i writ a thing
> 
> if you end up liking this work, check me out over on tumblr at [gallathegalla](https://gallathegalla.tumblr.com/)

Frisk was not afraid of spiders.

There had been countless times when they had been in the garden, the summer sun warming their back, that Frisk had sat and watched the little spiders building their webs. Whenever it was time to help clean around the house, they had pretended not to notice the threads delicately hung at the top of the windows.

Frisk was not afraid of spiders, but spiders had never attacked them like this before.

“Let you go? Don’t be silly~”

Frisk struggled against the web tangled around them, lit by the violet glow their soul had taken. They could hardly move, and for every spider they could keep off of their arms, there was another crawling over their shirt and biting through to their skin. It hurt, it hurt and their food wouldn’t last for long.

“Your soul is going to make every spider very happy~”

 

**Stay determined!**

 

Gaping cupcake jaws snapped at Frisk’s feet. They had to climb faster, but each spider that rained down on their head hurt as much as the ones that would bite. They were getting nowhere, the purple threads of Muffet’s magic keeping them as trapped as they had been in the web. Frisk couldn’t sign, not while their hands were busy, so they shouted instead. “I don’t stomp spiders!”

“Ahuhuhuhu… Even liars can make tasty cakes~”

 

**Frisk! Stay determined!**

 

Cobwebs weren’t the only thing they could smell. There was tea, the same tea that had changed the color of their soul, and pastries. All sorts of pastries, fresher here than they’d smelled at the bake sale. One such pastry Frisk didn’t notice before it was too late to duck.

 

**Stay determined.**

 

Frisk was _not_ afraid of spiders.

No matter how many times they died.

“Oh, it’s lunch time, isn’t it? And I forgot to feed my pet~”

 

**Stay determined.**

 

Even when all they could see was little black legs, gnashing teeth, and a bright purple light.

“But enough of that...”

 

**Stay determined…**

 

Muffet giggled in that way that might have been cute, if it didn’t mean another attack was on its way. But, to Frisk’s surprise, no attack came. “Just kidding~” They looked up at the spider, their chest heaving and their eyes wide. “I’ll spare you now~”

 _“Thank you,”_ Frisk signed, their hands shaking. Then, they smiled.

The violet drained from their soul, dripping off of the bottom in globs and disappearing against the strands of the spider webs. Frisk cradled the heart shaped soul as its color, the red of their determination, returned. It faded into their chest, pulsing in time with the beat of their heart… exactly where it belonged.

“Ahuhuhuhu~ That was fun!” Muffet exclaimed, clapping four of her six hands. Frisk was sure they would have agreed, if they weren’t still stuck in a tangle of sticky silk. Struggling didn’t get them much, other than an uncomfortable brush of web against their skin when their shirt started to ride up.

They sighed, wiped some strings off of their hands, and looked up at Muffet. _“Can you give me a hand... or three? Please? I’m a little stuck.”_

“Oh! Of course, dearie~” Muffet pranced across the webs with a grace Frisk couldn’t hope to achieve. Not without a lot of dance lessons, and maybe a couple more limbs. They held their arms out to her, and she grabbed their hands tight, smiling as she pulled the human out of her trap. They smiled, too.

Frisk really wasn’t afraid of spiders.

“See you again, dearie!” Frisk waved to Muffet, and the rest of the spiders, as they left the web filled lair, a donut in their hand and much less gold in their pocket.

The shadowed entryway opened into what looked like… a theatre? It was a few degrees cooler than everywhere else they had been in Hotland, so as sweltering as it was, it was a wonderful break all the same. They finished the last couple bites of their donut as they looked around. There was a large space just ahead, and in front of it were rows of seats, none of which they could see any monsters in. Whatever was going on, it had Mettaton written all over it. No sooner did Frisk have the thought that they noticed a large pink and purple poster stuck to a brick wall. It featured an extremely flattering picture of Mettaton at one of his performances, basking in a pink tinted spotlight with a crowd of fans behind him. ‘A tragic tale of two star crossed lovers, kept apart by the tides of fate…’

Frisk frowned and pulled out their phone to check the time. It was always difficult, readjusting after a death. Or multiple deaths. If they didn’t know the day they’d fallen, Frisk was sure they would never be able to figure out how long they had been in the Underground. From the looks of it, the show would be starting soon. Probably as soon as Frisk tried to cross the stage. It was about time for Alphys to call them again, but she hadn’t said anything since she asked about hanging out together. As long as it _felt_ , it wasn’t long enough to worry. Alphys would help if they got in over their head, just like she did with the quiz, and the jetpack, and the bombs.

Everything would be okay. Muffet was just… just a detour. Frisk rubbed the center of their chest, then tucked their phone away in their pocket.

Whatever Mettaton had planned, Alphys would see them through it. Frisk was filled with _determination_.

Frisk pushed ahead, making it halfway across the stage before Mettaton's electronic voice rang out. "OH? THAT HUMAN..." They looked around, over the painted scenery, then up at the ‘building’, where Mettaton was peeking out of a dark window. “COULD IT BE…?” He rolled out from behind the prop and clasped his hands together, gazing down at the human. “... MY ONE TRUE LOVE?” As rushed as the scene appeared, the same couldn’t be said about Mettaton’s costume: a layered gown of rich blues, all glittering under the stage lights. It fit him pretty well, considering he was a rectangle.

Mettaton lifted the skirt a fraction off of the platform and rolled down the stairs. _Thunk. Thunk. Thunk._ He bounced down each step with grace for someone without any feet. Slow music swelled as Mettaton reached the main stage, pausing at the foot of the stairs before he approached Frisk. "Oh, my love, please run away," Mettaton sang, his hands clasped once more. His voice took Frisk by surprise. It was as electronic as it always was, but softer somehow, carried by the role Mettaton was taking instead of his usual boisterous persona. “Monster King,” he sang on, throwing an arm over his screen, “forbids your stay!”

“Humans must live far apart…” Although Frisk couldn’t see anyone in the theatre seats, Mettaton was playing towards an audience, not paying attention to them. Maybe there were cameras behind the glare of the lights. “Even if,” he covered his face with his hands, “it breaks my heart!”

Frisk spotted something pink out of the corner of their eye, bright against the black and blues of the backdrop. “They'll put you,” he rolled towards Frisk with an outstretched hand, “in the dungeon!” They looked up, and among the rafters were several different monsters, tossing petals down onto the stage. “It'll suck, and then you'll die a lot.”

They looked over at Mettaton, only to see him filing his nails. “Really sad.” Did he even have nails? “You're gonna die.” It wasn't a very romantic song. “Cry cry cry.” Oh… maybe it was? “So sad it's happening.” Nope.

The music faded away with Mettaton striking a pose, the stage covered in pink petals, and Frisk equal parts confused and impressed. “SO SAD. SO SAD THAT YOU ARE GOING TO THE DUNGEON.” Mettaton pulled out a big red button. “WELL, TOODLES.”

 _“Wait!”_ He pressed the button, opening a trap door right under Frisk’s feet.

It was a thankfully short drop, but Frisk stumbled and fell back onto hot earth. The sudden impact and blast of heat was disorienting, and for a moment, all Frisk could see was Mettaton flying down the square hole after them, the fabric of his dress fluttering away from the magenta flame of his jet. “OH NO!” They pushed themselves off the ground, wincing from the ache in their ankle. “WHATEVER SHALL I DO? MY LOVE HAS BEEN CAST AWAY INTO THE DUNGEON.” The dungeon looked an awful lot like the rest of Hotland, just hotter, and darker, and there were an awful lot of colored… oh no. “A DUNGEON WITH A PUZZLE SO DASTARDLY, MY PARAMOUR WILL SURELY PERISH! OH, HEAVENS HAVE MERCY! THE HORRIBLE COLORED TILE MAZE!”

It was one thing, doing the puzzle with Papyrus. He was trying to capture Frisk, not kill them. And, that puzzle was much smaller than the stretch of squares Frisk saw before them. They had gotten lucky with Papyrus’ try, but this one was already activated by the look of it. The mess of colors probably wasn't going to turn red and pink. “EACH COLORED TILE HAS ITS OWN SADISTIC FUNCTION. FOR EXAMPLE, A GREEN TILE SOUNDS A NOISE, AND THEN YOU MUST FIGHT A MONSTER. RED TILES WILL…” Red tiles were impassable. Pink tiles didn't do anything. Frisk could almost remember the rules from the last time. Sort of. “ACTUALLY, WAIT A SECOND.”

_“What?”_

“DIDN'T WE SEE THIS PUZZLE ABOUT A HUNDRED ROOMS AGO?”

_“With Papyrus?”_

“THAT’S RIGHT. YOU REMEMBER ALL THE RULES, DON'T YOU?”

_“Mostly that there’s electricity and piranhas—”_

“GREAT! THEN I WON'T WASTE YOUR TIME REPEATING THEM!! OH, AND YOU'D BETTER HURRY.” Oh no. “BECAUSE IF YOU DON'T GET THROUGH IN THIRTY SECONDS…” A wall of flames sprung to life behind Frisk, stretching farther than the plateau they stood on, and high enough to light the top of the dungeon's cavern. “YOU'LL BE INCINERATED BY THESE JETS OF FIRE!” Looking away from the flames and to the puzzle before them, Frisk could already see too many deaths in their future. They’d been burnt by the other monsters in Hotland, but none of those had made Frisk's hands shake, or their sweat feel cold. Mettaton, hovering well out of the reach of the flames, laughed. Thirty seconds, that was still enough time for Alphys to call and help. She had to still be watching. They wouldn't have been surprised if Mettaton had the whole Underground watching. “HA! MY POOR LOVE! I'M SO FILLED WITH GRIEF, I CAN'T STOP LAUGHING! GOOD LUCK, DARLING!”

Without any other words of warning, two screens dropped down, one with the timer and the second with ‘flavor’. As Frisk hurried across the conveyor bridge, Mettaton flew behind them, singing another of his songs. “Oh my love has fallen down!” They stepped out onto a pink tile, then to green. The tile chimed, but when no monster came out, Frisk pushed ahead onto an orange tile. Was that the flavor piranhas liked? “Now in tears,” they stepped onto a purple tile, which sent them flying into the next blue one, “we all will drown!” There were no bites, or nibbles, or any sign of the fish. Lemon, lemon flavor was safe. There were a lot more blue tiles nearby. They couldn't get stuck orange flavored, so that left two pinks to try. “Colored tiles make them a fool.” Pink. Green and a chime. Purple lemon. They slid onto another pink tile, barely stopping before they hit the yellow in front of it. Electricity. Water dripped from their sleeves as they looked for the next tile. The other way was blocked by red. The right way had to have been through all of that water. “If only they still knew the rules!” Purple, green, pink, and back into the water. This puzzle was ridiculous! The blue tiles were blocked by blocks of red, leaving another pink as the only way to go. “Well, that was a sorry try.” Chimes and scents and sliding, it was all too much. Who could beat a puzzle like this? “Now let's watch them fry!”

The tiles all turned grey under Frisk’s feet the instant the clock ran out. They hadn't even gotten halfway across. “OOOOH, I'M SO SORRY! LOOKS LIKE YOU'RE OUT OF TIME!” From either side of the cavern, walls of flames closed in, trapping Frisk between them while Mettaton looked on from above. “HERE COME THE FLAMES, DARLING!” The walls inched closer. Maybe they were like the fire magic Toriel cooked with. Maybe they wouldn't hurt. “THEY'RE CLOSING IN!” Frisk could reset now, before they died. Before it hurt. “GETTING! CLOSER! OH MY!” Maybe this time they could solve the puzzle. “ANY MINUTE NOW!”

The fires didn't move. They kept on burning, their heat making sweat drip down Frisk's neck, but they didn't get any closer. The lights of Mettaton’s face flickered and he coughed. Then, Frisk's pocket vibrated and rang, making them jump and fumble to answer the phone inside it. “Watch out!” _Alphys._ “I'll save you! I'm hacking into the firewall right now!”

“Thank goodness,” Frisk said, letting out a breath as the flames sputtered out and disappeared. That had been close, even if the fire wasn't really… coming after them for that last bit there.

“OH NO!” Mettaton wailed in his usual monotone. “HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN? FOILED AGAIN BY THE BRILLIANT DOCTOR ALPHYS!” Frisk grinned and wiped sweat away from their forehead, leaving a wet, soapy streak. When Alphys didn't reply, they checked that their phone was still working. Hovering above, Mettaton started, “... THA—”

“That's right!” Alphys said quickly. “Come on, Mettaton, give up already! You'll never be able to defeat us… Not as long as we work together!”

“Yeah, you tell him!”

“Your puzzle’s over… Now go home and leave us alone!”

“PUZZLE? OVER?” Mettaton crossed his arms, a microphone in one hand, and flew down to the ground in front of them. “ALPHYS, DARLING, WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT…? DID YOU FORGET WHAT THE GREEN TILES DO? THEY MAKE A SOUND, THEN YOU HAVE TO FIGHT A MONSTER.” Oh no. “WELL, DARLING…” Oh _no…_ “THAT MONSTER…” The bright flames beneath Mettaton’s dress flicked off, his single wheel folding back into place as he landed on the tiles. “IS ME!”

Frisk held their cellphone against their chest, but it did nothing to stop their soul from being pulled out into the open. They took a step back, while Mettaton adjusted his bodice. “THIS IS IT, DARLING! SAY GOODBYE!” Frisk jumped again when their phone went off, buzzing against their shirt. They must have hung up on accident. “IS THAT YOUR PHONE?” Mettaton asked, and Frisk nodded. “YOU’D BETTER ANSWER IT!”

They nodded again and answered, their gaze flicking between their phone and Mettaton. “Alphys?”

“H-hey! Th-this seems bad, but don't worry!! Th-there’s one last thing I installed on your phone…! You see that yellow button…?”

“Uh… where?”

“Go to this phone’s Act menu and press it!”

“The phone has an Act menu?”

“Y-yeah, the one with the ‘defuse’ option?”

“Oh! It doesn’t say ‘Act’, it just has a funny looking icon.”

Mettaton coughed loudly, and when Frisk looked up at him, he opened his arms wide. “HA! THAT BUTTON WON’T SAVE YOU NOW, DARLING! THAT BUTTON THERE! THE YELLOW ONE!”

“I got it!” Frisk exclaimed, tapping the button rapidly. They stopped when a golden light shone out of the screen, the phone itself shaking as it grew brighter. The light pulsed out, beating in time with their own red soul.

“THIS IS IT, DARLING! SAY GOODBYE!”

The shaking suddenly stopped, and when it did, Frisk’s soul trembled instead. They watched as it turned, its bottom pointing towards Mettaton. With one last pulse, the glow of the screen turned their soul a matching yellow. “Now press it again!” Alphys said. “Quickly!” Frisk aimed their phone at Mettaton’s screen, and their soul followed, lining up between the two. When they pressed the button, a shot of yellow flew from their soul, knocking against Mettaton's face and dissipating.

“OOOH! OOOOOOOH!” Mettaton groaned as he covered his screens with his hands. “YOU'VE DEFEATED ME! HOW CAN THIS BE, YOU WERE STRONGER THAN I THOUGHT, ETC.” He waved his arms in apparent distress while he rolled away, across the tile puzzle and back to the plateau under the trapdoor. “WHATEVER.”

“Oh my goodness,” Frisk said, still holding their phone up.

From it, Alphys’ voice answered, “L-looks like you beat him! Y-you did a really great job out there.”

“Could I have done that this whole time?” Frisk aimed their soul at the cavern wall and mashed the button. A stream of yellow bullets blasted into the stone, sending sparks of light in all directions. “This is awesome!”

“W-what? Oh! I guess so…?”

“How does it work? Was that your magic? Or the phone’s magic!”

“I c-could show you the schematic after all of this is over, if you want…?”

“Yeah! I don’t know where I’d be without your help, Alphys.”

“What? Oh, no, I mean… You were the one doing everything cool! I just wrote some silly programs for your phone.” There was a pause while Frisk watched a few tiny chips tumble from the wall they’d been blasting and fall into the lava below. They heard Alphys shifting around for a moment before she spoke again. “... umm, h-hey, this might sound strange, but… c-can I tell you something?”

“Of course you can,” Frisk replied, their soul returning to its usual state as Alphys took a breath.

“B-before I met you, I d-didn’t really… I didn’t really like myself very much. For a long time, I f-felt like a total screw-up. L-like I couldn’t do a-anything w-without… W-without ending up letting everyone down.”

“Alphys—”

“B-but…!” she interrupted before they could say anything. “Guiding you has made me feel… a lot better about myself. So… thanks for letting me help you.”

“Thanks for helping me in the first place! I mean it. I really don’t know where I’d be without your help, other than lost, and maybe a cake.”

“... Uhhh, anyway, we’re almost to The Core. It’s just past MTT Resort. Come on! Let’s finish this!”

_Click._

Frisk stuck their phone back into their pocket, guided their soul back into their chest, and finally made their way down the stretch of greyed tiles. At the end of the ‘dungeon’ was a set of stairs, which opened into a crossroads. The Royal Guards from earlier were standing close to one another, the rabbit chatting away with the quieter dragon. A few yards away was a familiar cart, and as soon as Frisk saw the blue bunny, the vendor saw them as well. Frisk grinned and raised an arm high to wave, which made him do the same. They looked down either side of the path and spotted one of the giant elevators off to their right. On the other side, it looked like the entrance of the theatre they’d been in earlier.

When they looked to the Nice Cream guy again, they held up five fingers, pointed over to the theatre door, then gave a thumbs up. He just laughed as Frisk jogged over to the door. It led straight back to the stage area. It must not have been the main entrance after all. A few monsters were around, cleaning after the performance. There was a pile of flower petals getting swept into a big plastic container by a peacock, and a pair that sort of looked like living crystals were pulling vines off of the scenery. Across the stage was a lion that, unlike the others hard at work, seemed to be just hanging around.

Frisk made their way over and signed, _“Hi there.”_

Like every other monster they’d met so far, the lion didn’t have any trouble understanding them. It was one of the nice things about the Underground. They never had to speak if they didn’t want to. “Oh, hi. Did you see the show, too?”

_“Yeah, I caught some of it. The music was pretty great.”_

“Definitely. Mettaton looked really…” The lion monster gazed off at the stage, his paws fiddling with his jacket. “Really cool in that dress. It sort of makes me feel like I could wear one, too!”

Frisk grinned, waiting for the lion to focus on them again before they replied, _“I think you’d look really cute!”_

A blush spread across the lion’s face and he glanced towards the stage. “Maybe…”

Even if Mettaton was busy trying to kill them, it was nice to see that he encouraged the monsters that watched him to be themselves. Frisk looked up at the bright poster hanging on the bricks. Mettaton’s image gazed out upon the crowd, lit in the spotlight, warm and pink like his jet had been. The robot’s confident pose, the adoration in the eyes of the monsters, and a hopeful lion. They all filled Frisk with _determination_.

Frisk rocked on their heels for a moment, then turned back to the lion, tapping his arm to get his attention. Once he met their eyes, they signed, _“Can you help me get that poster down?”_

“Poster?” he asked, following Frisk’s finger when they pointed to the one on the wall. “Sure, I think so.” Frisk didn’t consider themselves particularly short, but a lot of the monsters they’d met were easily a whole head taller, the lion included. Despite that, the poster was hung even higher, and the lion had to stretch up on his toes to reach the top edge. They watched anxiously as his claws delicately pried the image off of the wall. It was even bigger than it looked, and the lion had to hold one side of it while Frisk rolled it into a tidy tube.

 _“Thank you so much!”_ Frisk smiled and set their bag on the ground, then pulled the top open. It wouldn’t fit all the way inside without getting messed up, but they could be careful with their bag if they didn’t close it all of the way.

“It’s no problem. I sort of have one at home, too.”

They made sure the poster was tucked safely in their bag before they replied, _“Do a lot of posters get put up? I thought Mettaton was on tv all the time.”_

“There’s a new one whenever he does a different stage performance… and sometimes for autograph signings.”

 _“That’s cool!”_ The lion nodded in agreement while Frisk took a moment to slip their bag onto their back. _“Well, it was really nice to meet you.”_

“You, too!”

The other monsters were still hard at work pulling down the scenery when Frisk passed, and they didn’t stop to bother anyone. They headed out, back to the Nice Cream cart and the Royal Guards. “Hey!” the Nice Cream guy called, waving at them. “It’s you again!”

_“Hi! What are you doing all the way out here?”_

“Business is excellent here!” he replied, smiling as he nodded toward the pair of guards. “These two fellas bought _all_ my ice cream!”

_“That’s great! Did you save any for me?”_

He glanced away, his ears twitching, then looked back down at Frisk. “... sorry. I’ve actually sold out of everything!”

_“Oh. Too bad.”_

“Wait! I’ve still got something for you!” He stood up straight and grinned, pointing both of his thumbs at his face. “... a big smile! How about that?”

Frisk laughed and clapped their hands. _“Perfect! That’s exactly what I wanted!”_

That made the rabbit laugh as well and lean against his cart. “I’m so happy! Nice Cream is really changing the world!”

_“Yeah! Let me know when you have more. I’d love to buy some!”_

“Will do!”

Frisk and the bunny waved goodbye to one another and, deciding not to bother the pair standing so close they might as well have been holding hands, they headed up a set of stairs built into the rocks. As they reached the top, the sweltering heat of Hotland faded around them. At the same time, the warm reddish-brown walls gave way to dark bricks. A huge building loomed ahead, bright lights shining out of the windows to illuminate vibrant plants and a cardinal colored carpet, which led to equally huge double doors.

On the ground was a piece of paper that Frisk stopped to pick up. Before they could read it, however, they spotted Sans.

 


End file.
